horseshoe-crab.jpgHorseshoe Crab Bottom.jpg

The Horseshoe Crab

The Horseshoe Crab is a very strange looking sea animal that lives in the Indo-Pacific Waters in Asia and along the Atlantic Coast to Maine to the Gulf of Mexico in North America. They are a living thing because it responds, grows and develops its made of many cells and it reproduces. Here are more details...

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What it Eats

Horseshoe crabs are mainly predetors. they eats small clams, crustateans and worms. they sometimes eat algae. they have no mandibles so they crush food with their legs. Like birds they have gizzards for grinding food before it reaches the stomach.

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Shelter

Horseshoe crabs shelter by burrowing under the sand. when the water gets too cold they burrow under the sand until the water gets warm again.

Reproducing

Horseshoe Crabs migrate to the shore during breeding season. The male clins onto the female's back and the female dig a hole to lay its eggs in while the male fertalizes them. The female can lay up to 60,000 to 120,000 eggs. The eggs take about two weeks to hatch.

Blood

Horseshoe crab blood is blue because it of the copper in it. Horseshoe Crab blood is used to make this thing called //Limulus// amebocyte lysate witch is used to detect a type of bactieria!

Other

Horseshoe crabs breathe water with gills but their gills are special because they can also breathe air for one week. Horseshoe Crabs look like crustateans but they are not they are closely related to arachnids. Horseshoe crabs use their tals to right themselves when they get flipped by the shore.

Video :D


TASK 2

In task two I will show you the Scientific classification of the Horseshoe crab and why it is in that class.

Scientific classification

Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Subphylum:
Chelicerata
Class:
Merostomata
Order:
Xiphosura
Family:
Limulidae

Anamalia

The Horseshoe crab is an the Anamalia kingdom because has many cells. It digests food with a gizzard so it digests food with an internal chamber.

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Many different animals
Horseshoe Crab
Horseshoe Crab

Arthropoda

The Horseshoe crab is an Arthropod becuase it has a segmented body, an exoskeleton and it is an invertibrae. Also because it has jointed appendages.
An illustration of a couple Arthropods including the Horseshoe crab
An illustration of a couple Arthropods including the Horseshoe crab


Chelicerata

Chelicerata is kind of like the Arthropod but they seperated into three groups: the Arachnid, Merostomata, and pycnogonida. Horseshoe crabs are in the Merostomata class and are in Chelicerata because they are like arthropods.

Arachnids
Arachnids

Pycnogonida
Pycnogonida

Merostomata

Merostomata is a name givin to an extinct group of Sea Scorpians and Horseshoe crabs because they are closely related.
Sea Scorpian
Sea Scorpian

Xiphosura

Xiphosura is an order of many extinct Chelicerata and the Horseshoe crab.

Limulidae

Limulidae is the fancy scientific word for Horseshoe crab.
Limulidae
Limulidae



Most information from: //Horseshoe Crab// FAQ,

//Horseshoe crab// - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Images from Google images

Video from You-Tube